Does Sansom’s tale at the heart of his fog-swathed landscape deliver the goods? Absolutely. However skilful the scene setting is, even in an alternate history thriller, the meat of the book is the plot and characters. This is a world where the BBC is strictly censored with newspapers, television and radio staying silent when violent protest spills into death – and morris dancing is upheld as a national dance… But perhaps the most startling demonstration of the difference is when young Queen Elizabeth – still unmarried – is commemorating Remembrance Sunday, with Rommel stepping forward and propping on the cenotaph a large poppy wreath, complete with a swastika. With much of the elderly industrial infrastructure still in place, the mines are still in the hands of individual owners who are running them into the ground. In this Britain there has been a prolonged period of financial stagnation, leading to widespread poverty without any Welfare State. As Sansom is an accomplished historian, his version of this world makes fascinating reading. So he has to construct a completely different world that emerges after Britain’s surrender. What must be jumping out at anyone interested in reading the book, is that the event where Sansom’s version of history diverges takes place twelve years previously. Which is more or less the blurb – except for the spoilers. But as events sweep this middle-class couple up into the political mincing machine, they cross paths with Gestapo Sturmbannfűhrer Gunther Hoth, brilliant and implacable hunter of men…
While his wife Sarah is increasingly suspicious of the late nights and week-end stints in the office. In Britain, Winston Churchill’s Resistance organisation is increasingly a thorn in the government’s side.Ĭivil servant David Fitzgerald has been passing on government secrets after the tragic death of his son. There are terrible rumours about what is happening in the basement of the Germany Embassy at Senate House. As the long German war against Russia rages in the east, the British people find themselves under dark authoritarian rule: the press, radio and television are controlled the streets patrolled by violent Auxiliary Police and British Jews face ever greater constraints.
Twelve years have passed since Churchill lost to the appeasers and Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany after Dunkirk. But this alternate historical thriller is something of a departure for Sansom – would I enjoy it as much as his tales of Tudor crime and his bleak but very accomplished Winter in Madrid? Sansom’s writing – we’ve bought the whole Matthew Shardlake series – read my review of Revelation here.
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